Book Review

Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist

N Engl J Med 1993; 328:816March 18, 1993

Article

Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist
By Adrian Desmond and James Moore. 808 pp., illustrated. New York, Warner Books, 1991. $35. ISBN: 0-446-51589-2

Hardly a year has passed since the centennial of the Origin of Species in 1959 in which one or two books on Charles Darwin have not appeared. Fortunately, there is not much overlap among them, and each fills a somewhat different niche. The new Darwin biography by Adrian Desmond and James Moore is likewise unique in many respects. With its 808 pages, it is clearly the longest and most detailed. It is also characterized -- for better or for worse -- by the authors' strictly chronologic approach, reporting, almost day by day, everything that happened in Darwin's life, as far as this can be reconstructed from the sources.

This chronologic approach lends itself to lively reporting. We are made acquainted with the interactions of Darwin's family life and his scientific work, the making of new friendships, his financial affairs, and the political and social events of the day, as well as Darwin's role in Victorian society. Occasionally the writing is quite moving. I had tears in my eyes when reading the account of the suffering and death of Darwin's lovely 10-year-old daughter Annie and the devastating effect this had on Darwin and his family.

We learn all about Darwin's youth, his family, his university education, his trip on the Beagle, his servants, his friends, his clubs, his charities, and his daily life. We learn, of course, in excruciating detail all about his illness. Wisely, the authors do not attempt a diagnosis, although the subtitle of the book and numerous hints indicate that they consider his illness a psychosomatic affliction caused by his realization of the impact his theories had on his Christian friends and particularly on his orthodox wife, Emma. Two of the most severe outbreaks of Darwin's illness, however, occurred at times when he simply was working too hard, rather than when he had a particular spiritual conflict.

The authors deserve special praise for abstaining from rehashing long-refuted speculations, such as the theory that Darwin had Chagas' disease (although he was indeed bitten by the triatoma bugs in Argentina) or the psychoanalysts' claim that his symptoms were due to a conflict with his father. In reference to other subjects, too, the authors ignore all sorts of nonsense that sensation-hungry writers have invented, such as the claim that Darwin suppressed for weeks the receipt of Alfred Russel Wallace's letter. Indeed, let me emphasize that I found all factual accounts to be based on the best modern research. In chapter after chapter, there are 15 to 40 footnoted references to the recently published volumes of the Correspondence and scores of other references.

Nothing human is ever perfect, so I shall point out some of the shortcomings of this work, as I see them. Anyone turning to this biography in order to be enlightened about Darwin's theories will be disappointed. This is a book about Darwin the man, not about his work. For that you will have to go to one of the other modern Darwin books. The chronologic approach necessitates chopping up every subject into numerous pieces, which are dealt with in different chapters, as is well shown by the treatment of the barnacle research. I doubt that anyone can get a clear picture of Darwin's theories of speciation, selection, adaptation, common descent, or classification from this book.

What is rather puzzling to me, a Darwinian scholar, is the consistent endeavor of the authors to imply that Darwin's thought was shaped by the politics of the day and by his own socioeconomic station. Darwin, of course, did not live in an ivory tower. He knew what was going on in the world, but reading his notebooks, draft manuscripts, and correspondence suggests to me how closely his conclusions followed from his scientific findings. The fact that, after 1859, just about everybody rejected natural selection indicates the feebleness of the Zeitgeist theory. The further fact that Wallace independently arrived at an almost identical theory of evolution, even though he had a totally different socioeconomic background, is also in conflict with the externalist theory.

In spite of these shortcomings, this is an excellent biography. If you are interested in Darwin, the man and his world, you will enjoy this lively and sympathetic account.

Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138